Moondog
Louis "Moondog" Hardin was one of the greatest geniuses of the 20th century. A New York street performer of the 1950s, he composed string quartets, symphonies and operas, but mainly surreal vignettes for orchestra and home-made instruments. His works encompass everything that was known and a lot of what was still unknown. He virtually invented every single genre of rock, electronic and world music.
Louis "Moondog" Hardin was one of the greatest geniuses of the 20th century. A New York street performer of the 1950s, he composed string quartets, symphonies and operas, but mainly surreal vignettes for orchestra and home-made instruments. His works encompass everything that was known and a lot of what was still unknown. He virtually invented every single genre of rock, electronic and world music.
H'art Songs
Moondog singing Moondog? Really! even goodness knows, Moondog doesn't sing a song; he shows you how it goes."
Moondog And His Friends
*2024 stock* Moondog And His Friends was originally released in 1954 on the Epic label as a 10 album and is resplendent with the same sparse yet rhythmic percussion as is found on his various other albums. Despite the And His Friends credit there is little mention of any of them on the original sleevenotes, save for a mention for his wife who performs on the oo, a triangular instrument that sounded similar to a harp. There is no doubt that Moondog was considered musically different at the time h…
Moondog
*2024 stock* Debut album, originally released in 1956. The blind Kansas native showcases his talent for the minimal & avant-garde here, w/ compositions driven by percussion & Japanese-inspired melodies, complimented by street sounds, recitations, & animal noises. Bizarre even for today's standards, it's a wonder this was released over a half-century ago.
More Moondog
*2024 stock* Continues the NYC street performer's exploration of minimalist composition & field recording, mixing percussion & sparse melodies w/ piano solos, street sounds, & monologues. Surprisingly accessible despite it's avant-garde nature, bridging the gap between the familiar & the bizarre. Another all out masterwork from one of 20th century America's most unique minds.
The EP Collection
*2024 stock* Moondog is one of those artists who it is almost impossible to define. His look was unique and his music even more so, and whilst many of the people who encountered him on the streets of New York thought of him as one of the sights of the city, to the police he was little more than a beggar. Yet Moondog was ultimately to become a worldwide celebrity, feted by the great and the good of New York City, including the likes of Benny Goodman and Charlie Parker. This album gathers together…
The Viking Of Sixth Avenue
2021 restock, originally released in 2005. Tremendous gatefold presentation and one of HJR's most impressive documents to date. Poet, composer, street musician and cosmologist Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin, 1916-1999) learned rhythm from American Indians and counterpoint from J.S. Bach. Many of his recordings feature instruments he built himself: trimba, yukh, tuji, oo. Sometimes you can hear in the background the streets of New York, where Moondog often slept. In addition, he was blind, due to …
On the Streets of New York
A survey of Moondog’s earliest recorded works – many of them unreleased until now – through a collaboration by Mississippi Records and Lucia Records.
Playing Moondog\'s Music
2019 repress. Recorded in 1955, released on his own short-lived Moondog label. 4 tracks of manic saxophone and snare drum mayhem. You will not find an original of this anywhere. Blind from the age of 17, classically trained in music, Moondog aka Louis Hardin left the countryside in the late 1940s to busk on the streets of New York, playing percussion instruments of his own creation. He later became the darling of the NY arts and music set. He also recorded for Folkways, Woody Herman's Mars label…
Moondog and His Friends
2019 repress. Originally released in 1953, this collection of very early Moondog pieces features the same tribal rhythmic impulse as his famed Prestige recordings, but there's an impressive line in chamber music running through these compositions. It's a fantastic collection of recordings from the eccentric genius that was
Moondog. This mini-album features Moondog's pioneering techniques in
tape overdubbing -- he harmonises with himself on voice, double bass and
home-made drums. Touches of h…
Snaketime Series
This really is a treat, a re-issue of the incredibly rare debut LP from legendary blind outsider Moondog. Originally released back in 1956 on the musician's own Moondog Recordings imprint, this incredible album showcases the man at his way-out best, blending Eastern instruments and ethnic music with American exotica to come up with a sound which is impossible to categorise. A mostly self-taught musician, Moondog (real name Louis Thomas Hardin) performed in the streets of New York City for most o…
The Story Of Moondog
Dating back to 1957, The Story Of Moondog followed up the previous year's More Moondog LP, setting its course for adventurous new sounds and homemade percussion meditations.The music is never a slave to any one fixed agenda and much of the material here sounds as if its gathered from some undiscovered culture - it's all-but impossible to compare this with anything else from the era, but when the longer-form pieces arrive they augment the more primal, outsider aesthetics with visceral, jazzy arra…
Moondog (1969)
Major label breakthrough (don’t blink or you’ll miss it)! Moondog’s spell with Columbia, then America’s most prestigious jazz and classical label, began here. Joplin’s lobbying opened the door. The album was produced by James William Guercio, a former Mother of Invention and producer of Columbia artists Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago. A modest commercial success, and an unqualified artistic triumph, the disc featured Moondog fronting a 40-piece orchestra. The best known track is ‘Bird’s Lament…
Songs Of Sense & Nonsense - Tell It Again
Oddbod waxing of the week has to be this 1950s album by Julie Andrews & Martyn Green ft. Moondog. Of course, back in the day, no-one really gave much of a fig for a blind pagan wizard percussionist. Julie was all the rage then, much like Cheryl Cole is now. Except she was a tad posher. So the original sleeve of 'Tell it Again' featured just his brief resume on the rear of the sleeve but very little else. The new reissue has MOONDOG splayed in massive fuck off text with lil' old Julie baby…
Sax Pax for a Sax
Classical world-folk style by Moondog joined with jazz timbers by The London Saxophonic: the amazing and original collaboration between two distinct way of music.
Remixed No. 1
Moondog's outsiderness ensures an approach to modern composition that doesn't ever establish any single, fixed identity, which is of course what makes this man such an alluring figure in 20th century music. Mr Scruff remix is a post-futuristic-jazz influenced by hip-hop cadences that makes appear how important Moondog has been in the past and how he will be for contemporaries and future generations.
Rare Material
Totally essential two cd collection of some of the most elusive Moondog material of all . When the "Viking of Sixth Avenue" single volume compilation was reissued, we pleaded that here was truly a taste worth acquiring. Louis Hardin somehow managed to find the musical continuities between Bach, native american Sundances, be-bop, Stravinsky and yet still pursue his own musical paths and sound utterly unique. Strong claim, but the music truly bears it out. Drawing the entire disc one from the ultr…
In Europe
Moondog’s first release after moving to Germany, “Moondog in Europe” is a very heavy listen. While there are some aspects of his quirky style, most of this album is drenched in seriousness. Despite this being his first slightly somber album though, Moondog cleverly inserts various rounds from “Moondog 2.” Like Roger Waters taking portions of melody and hooks from “The Wall” and incorporating them into his “The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking,” Moondog similarly borrows his own melodies, changing…
H\'Art Songs
Moondog's fanbase seems to be righteously on the up nowadays, with reissue after reissue re-illuminating his singularly out-there musical genius. This is a stranger album than most however: on this one Moondog sings. Yes, this is possibly the only entry into the blind Viking impersonator/singer/songwriter sub genre. Inevitably, it's really good. Even though this album (recorded in 1969, incidentally) reduces the composer's ordinarily expanded palette to little more than voice and piano, there's …
The German Years 1977-1999
The first disc is an anthology of the music Moondog made in Germany, after moving there in 1974. The second is a recording of his last concert, on 1 August 1999. Both are excellent and amazing examples of Moondog's skills. Excellent notes and photographs.
Story of Moondog
3rd LP from NYC street performer & avant-garde/minimalist composer, originally released in 1957. Perhaps the least accessible of his early releases, this album is made up of percussive jams, usually on instruments of his own creation, street sounds, poetry, & Far East melodies, despite opening w/ a swinging number that is, oddly, the most bizarre thing on the album.